Proving Lost Wages in Personal Injury Lawsuit

If you have been injured severely in an accident caused by someone else’s negligent behavior, you may be confined to bed and under medical treatment. This means you can’t work and hence lose earnings.

Luckily, North Carolina law gives victims the right to seek reimbursement for lost wages to be compensated adequately. However, the nature of your employment and the scope of injuries will affect what evidence you need to provide and how difficult it will be to support your claim. And that’s why it is essential to hire an experienced personal injury lawyer in North Carolina. They can help you navigate the process and fight to get the compensation that you deserve.

Apart from hiring legal assistance, a good read-through of the following will provide you with the introductory information that you need to understand what it takes to prove lost wages in a personal injury lawsuit.

Evidence to Support Your Lost Wages Claim

After the accident, you must try to be on top of tracking all lost income. This will help you prove your claims. Start by collecting proper documentation. There are many types of documents that you’ll need to confirm your claim for lost wages and income. Here’s a quick overview from an employee and entrepreneur standpoint:

Claiming Lost Wage as an Employee

The doctor’s note that writes you out of work

It should appropriately document your inability to work or execute your job duties and written by the doctor/medical provider that served you. Moreover, the note should be written on their formal medical pad and include:

Dates you are absent from work.

Treatment dates.

  • The date you sustained injuries.
  • The projected date for return to work.

Notes from your medical provider will provide insight into the severity of your injuries, along with the life changes that the injuries may have caused. This information can impact the final compensation for your claim, as these notes will prove that your injuries prevented you from working.

Notes from the employer proving the wage amount

This is yet another document that is crucial for supporting your claim. It provides the employer’s verification that you missed work. Like the doctor’s note, the employer’s note should be written on the company’s formal letterhead and signed.

The document must include important information like the dates of missed workdays, hours that you were scheduled for work, the money you would have earned had you not missed work, and a breakdown of the payment such as hourly/commission, if applied.

Put simply, claiming for lost wages is mainly determined based on how you’re paid (hourly, salary, or commission). Also, depending on the employment, you may be able to claim:

  • Lost bonuses
  • Sick pay
  • Missed promotions
  • Vacation pay

Also, please note that your current pay shall be used as the basis for determining your lost wage compensation when seeking compensation.

These verification notes from the employer will provide the claim adjuster with proof of your base pay and the days missed. However, it is essential to understand that these verification notes don’t necessarily guarantee that the adjuster will accept the amount your employer states as lost wages. Therefore, it makes sense to work with an experienced personal injury lawyer in North Carolina who can represent you and advocate against an adjuster making you a low-ball offer.

Similarly, if you’re an entrepreneur or a small business owner injured in an accident, you can claim lost income in your personal injury lawsuit. The documents that you will need are as follows:

IRS tax returns and financial reports and statements

Your IRS tax returns, including financial reports and statements for the relevant period, will be crucial to both proving and supporting your lost income claim. It is helpful to have two to three years of tax returns and financial documents to support how much money you may have lost because of the injuries.

Proving lost income as a self-employed person may take time and more effort because you will need to provide more evidence to prove your compensation and actual missed workdays. This is because one can’t go to the employer for the necessary information.

In addition to this, entrepreneurs entering contracts frequently should provide lost invoices and contracts. It is also essential to provide contracts and invoices that prove your work schedule, accounts payable and receivable, and letters from customers to verify your claim for income lost due to the injuries sustained.

A disabled man is sitting in a wheelchair. He holds his hands on the wheel.

Contact us for Legal Representation

At the Law Office of Jason E. Taylor P.C., our experienced personal injury lawyer in North Carolina and South Carolina can help you navigate the process while providing you with quality assistance. We can guide and assist you in completing all the relevant and necessary paperwork that can prove and support your lost wages claim.

Being experienced in this domain, we know that lost wages are a crucial part of receiving fair compensation, but it isn’t easy to prove in its entirety. The process of proving the claim is complicated and quite technical as compared to other types of damages. Some victims even omit lost wages from their claim because of its complexity, but you don’t have to.

Once you hire us, we will evaluate your claim and determine how to fight for maximum compensation for injuries incurred and lost wages. We will go the extra mile to try to help you make a full recovery. Contact us today to discuss your case, and we’ll see if we can assist you accordingly.

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Notice of Data Security Event
Updated March 28, 2025

The Law Offices of Jason E. Taylor is providing notice of an event that may affect certain individuals’ information. Although we have no indication of identity theft or fraud in relation to this event, we are providing information about the event, our response, and additional measures individuals can take to help protect their information, should they feel it appropriate to do so.

What Happened? On October 28, 2024, The Law Offices of Jason E. Taylor identified suspicious activity related to our email system. We quickly took steps to investigate and determined that an unknown actor may have accessed certain emails within our email system between August 7 and November 7, 2024. We then conducted a comprehensive review of the potentially affected emails and attachments to determine what information was contained therein and to whom the information related, which was completed on February 25, 2025. Unfortunately, we were unable to verify the addresses of certain affected individuals, so we are providing this notice to ensure potentially affected individuals receive information about the event.

What Information Was Involved? The information affected may include individuals’ Social Security number, driver’s license and state ID information, financial account number, and health information.

What We Are Doing. We are notifying individuals about this matter and providing guidance about free resources that are available to assist with monitoring relevant accounts, credit reports, and how to place a fraud alert or security freeze on one’s credit file. Further, as with our typical security practices, we will continue to evaluate our policies, procedures, staff training, and technical security measures to reduce the likelihood of an event like this reoccurring.

What Individuals Can Do. We encourage you to remain vigilant against incidents of identity theft and fraud by reviewing your account statements and monitoring your free credit reports for suspicious activity and to detect errors. We also recommend you review the below “Steps Individuals Can Take To Help Protect Personal Information”.

For More Information. If individuals have questions about this matter, we have a dedicated assistance line with agents ready to answer their questions. Please contact our toll-free dedicated assistance line at 1-800-939-4170, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. through 9 p.m., excluding holidays. You may also write to us at The Law Offices of Jason E. Taylor, Attn: Compliance, P.O. Box 2688, Hickory, NC 28603.

Sincerely,

The Law Offices of Jason E. Taylor

STEPS INDIVIDUALS CAN TAKE TO HELP PROTECT PERSONAL INFORMATION

Monitor Your Accounts

Under U.S. law, a consumer is entitled to one free credit report annually from each of the three major credit reporting bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. To order a free credit report, visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call, toll-free, 1-877-322-8228. Consumers may also directly contact the three major credit reporting bureaus listed below to request a free copy of their credit report.

Consumers have the right to place an initial or extended “fraud alert” on a credit file at no cost. An initial fraud alert is a 1-year alert that is placed on a consumer’s credit file. Upon seeing a fraud alert display on a consumer’s credit file, a business is required to take steps to verify the consumer’s identity before extending new credit. If consumers are the victim of identity theft, they are entitled to an extended fraud alert, which is a fraud alert lasting seven years. Should consumers wish to place a fraud alert, please contact any of the three major credit reporting bureaus listed below.

As an alternative to a fraud alert, consumers have the right to place a “credit freeze” on a credit report, which will prohibit a credit bureau from releasing information in the credit report without the consumer’s express authorization. The credit freeze is designed to prevent credit, loans, and services from being approved in a consumer’s name without consent. However, consumers should be aware that using a credit freeze to take control over who gets access to the personal and financial information in their credit report may delay, interfere with, or prohibit the timely approval of any subsequent request or application they make regarding a new loan, credit, mortgage, or any other account involving the extension of credit. Pursuant to federal law, consumers cannot be charged to place or lift a credit freeze on their credit report. To request a credit freeze, individuals may need to provide some or all of the following information:

1. Full name (including middle initial as well as Jr., Sr., II, III, etc.);
2. Social Security number;
3. Date of birth;
4. Addresses for the prior two to five years;
5. Proof of current address, such as a current utility bill or telephone bill;
6. A legible photocopy of a government-issued identification card (state driver’s license or ID card, etc.); and
7. A copy of either the police report, investigative report, or complaint to a law enforcement agency concerning identity theft if they are a victim of identity theft.

Should consumers wish to place a credit freeze or fraud alert, please contact the three major credit reporting bureaus listed below:

Equifax Experian TransUnion
https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/ https://www.experian.com/help/

https://www.transunion.com/credit-help
1-888-298-0045 1-888-397-3742 1-800-916-8800
Equifax Fraud Alert, P.O. Box 105069 Atlanta, GA 30348-5069 Experian Fraud Alert, P.O. Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013 TransUnion Fraud Alert, P.O. Box 2000, Chester, PA 19016
Equifax Credit Freeze, P.O. Box 105788 Atlanta, GA 30348-5788 Experian Credit Freeze, P.O. Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013 TransUnion Credit Freeze, P.O. Box 160, Woodlyn, PA 19094

Additional Information

Consumers may further educate themselves regarding identity theft, fraud alerts, credit freezes, and the steps they can take to protect their personal information by contacting the consumer reporting bureaus, the Federal Trade Commission, or their state attorney general. The Federal Trade Commission may be reached at: 600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20580; www.identitytheft.gov; 1-877-ID-THEFT (1-877-438-4338); and TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The Federal Trade Commission also encourages those who discover that their information has been misused to file a complaint with them. Consumers can obtain further information on how to file such a complaint by way of the contact information listed above. Consumers have the right to file a police report if they ever experience identity theft or fraud. Please note that in order to file a report with law enforcement for identity theft, consumers will likely need to provide some proof that they have been a victim. Instances of known or suspected identity theft should also be reported to law enforcement and the relevant state attorney general. This notice has not been delayed by law enforcement.

For District of Columbia residents, the District of Columbia Attorney General may be contacted at: 400 6th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001; 1-202-442-9828; and oag.dc.gov.

For Maryland residents, the Maryland Attorney General may be contacted at: 200 St. Paul Place, 16th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202; 1-410-576-6300 or 1-888-743-0023; and https://www.marylandattorneygeneral.gov/.

For New Mexico residents, consumers have rights pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, such as the right to be told if information in their credit file has been used against them, the right to know what is in their credit file, the right to ask for their credit score, and the right to dispute incomplete or inaccurate information. Further, pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the consumer reporting bureaus must correct or delete inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable information; consumer reporting agencies may not report outdated negative information; access to consumers’ files is limited; consumers must give consent for credit reports to be provided to employers; consumers may limit “prescreened” offers of credit and insurance based on information in their credit report; and consumers may seek damages from violators. Consumers may have additional rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act not summarized here. Identity theft victims and active-duty military personnel have specific additional rights pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. We encourage consumers to review their rights pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act by visiting www.consumerfinance.gov/f/201504_cfpb_summary_your-rights-under-fcra.pdf, or by writing Consumer Response Center, Room 130-A, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20580.

For New York residents, the New York Attorney General may be contacted at: Office of the Attorney General, The Capitol, Albany, NY 12224-0341; 1-800-771-7755; or https://ag.ny.gov.

For North Carolina residents, the North Carolina Attorney General may be contacted at: 9001 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-9001; 1-877-566-7226 or 1-919-716-6000; and www.ncdoj.gov.

For Rhode Island residents, the Rhode Island Attorney General may be reached at: 150 South Main Street, Providence, RI 02903; 1-401-274-4400; and www.riag.ri.gov. Under Rhode Island law, individuals have the right to obtain any police report filed in regard to this event.
STEPS INDIVIDUALS CAN TAKE TO HELP PROTECT A MINOR DEPENDENT’S PERSONAL INFORMATION

Typically, credit reporting agencies do not have a credit report in a minor’s name. To find out if a minor has a credit report or to request a manual search for a minor’s Social Security number each credit bureau has its own process. To learn more about these processes or request these services, consumers may contact the credit bureaus by phone, writing, or online:
Equifax Experian TransUnion
https://www.equifax.com/personal/help/article-list/-/h/a/request-child-credit-report/
https://www.experian.com/help/minor-request.html
https://www.transunion.com/fraud-victim-resources/child-identity-theft

1-800-685-1111 1-888-397-3742 1-800-916-8800
P.O. Box 105788
Atlanta, GA 30348-5788 P.O. Box 9554
Allen, TX 75013 P.O. Box 2000
Chester, PA 19016

To request information about the existence of a credit file in a minor’s name, search for a minor’s Social Security number, place a security freeze or fraud alert on a minor’s credit report (if one exists), or request a copy of a minor’s credit report consumers may be required to provide the following information:
● A copy of their driver’s license or another government issued identification card, such as a state identification card, etc.;
● Proof of address, such as a copy of a bank statement, utility bill, insurance statement, etc.;
● A copy of the minor’s birth certificate;
● A copy of the minor’s Social Security card;
● The minor’s full name, including middle initial and generation, such as JR, SR, II, III, etc.;
● The minor’s date of birth; and
● The minor’s previous addresses for the past two years.

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